The use of high throughput sequencing technology has made possible for analyzing the microbial communities in water samples. Rivers and lakes, which are supplying the raw water for drinking water production, are contaminated from a different source of contamination. Despite the highly developed wastewater treatment and drinking water production techniques, human pathogens from diverse sources may not always be sufficiently removed or inactivated during the treatment. Therefore, pathogens could be transported from the sources to the raw waters or even into the tap water. So, the protection of raw water quality is taken as one of the major barriers among the multi-barrier approach of safe drinking water production and public health protection. Human pathogens occurring in river water are part of the complex microbial communities. The aim of this study is to understand the characteristics and taxonomy of bacterial communities and their sources and activity patterns in a river ecosystem. This study provides a close look at how the anthropogenic (through pollution discharge) and autochthonous bacterial communities interact in the river ecosystem. It provides knowledge about the effect of sewage treatment technologies of the upstream municipalities of a river and public health risk of the consumers of downstream, who use the river water for recreation (citizens) or drinking water production (water suppliers).

2019